Specialisms

ontarget club specialisms recognise and reward clubs that are already working hard in, or want to develop, specific areas of the sport. The three key areas are: Community, Young People, and Performance.

Community

Want to get more people involved in our wonderfully inclusive, social, family-friendly sport? Then consider achieving the ‘Community’ club specialism. The community club specialisms allows clubs to explore ways of getting to the heart of the community and giving as many people as possible easy access to the sport. That also means recognising potential barriers and finding solutions, so that people can enjoy a high-quality archery experience with excellent social, training and competition opportunities.

Further information: Please download the document at the bottom of the page.

Young people

If archery is to grow, we need to get young people of all abilities involved. Clubs already play a vital role in that, but if your club wants to develop that further, it’s worth considering achieving the ‘Young People’ club specialisms. So what do young people clubs offer? Young people clubs will generally combine a warm welcome with an atmosphere in which young people are encouraged to train, compete and socialise. They can also offer young people dedicated coaching and support, and the chance to play a role in the running of the club. Young people specialism clubs are also likely to have strong links to the community, local schools and sport development groups.

Further Information: Please download the document at the bottom of the page.

Performance

A ‘Performance’ club is not just about archers. It is about coaches, judges, volunteers and club officials too. A performance club understands the need to help them all develop by creating opportunities to train, build on skills, achieve their potential and satisfy goals. To do this it needs to be open to new ideas, recognise the importance of suitable competition and training as fundamental drivers to raising performance, and create an environment that encourages excellence in club, school, and community settings. Helping members develop will lead to better performances all round and improve the standards of everyone involved in the talent pathway.

Further information : Please download the document at the bottom of the page.

All ontarget clubs are invited to consider gaining one or more specialisms. They need to think about what activities they provide, compare them to the characteristics, think about how they meet the requirements, and how they can do even more. Completing the self-assessment will help a club reflect on its strengths and weaknesses, and gives a clear idea of what is needed. The Development team is always on hand to give advice and support to clubs that are interested in, or already going through, the process.

Getting Involved

The purpose of the ontarget programme is to provide structure and vision for grassroots archery clubs. The specialisms can help do this by assessing your club’s strengths and weaknesses and providing points for further discussion or development.

Think about how your club already meets the characteristics, and what else it could do. To achieve a specialism you need to:

Try to display the characteristics in your club activity. This programme is about ‘doing’, not collecting paperwork.

Complete the online self-assessment form.

Your club does not have to be doing all the activities listed to join the ontarget programme, but completing the self-assessment will help you reflect on strengths and weaknesses.

If you meet all the characteristics listed, your club will achieve that specialism.

You will need to think about the activities you want to host in order to continue to deliver the right activities for your members. If a club isn’t able to meet all the characteristics required for a specialism, the Development team will work with the club to move towards this in the future.

Clubs can complete the self-assessment form straight away, but there is no closing date. Clubs can take up to a year to develop new activities and for the specialism ethos to become embedded.

We will also establish a review process for the specialisms. If your club no longer provides all the activities to be classified as a community, young people or performance club, the Development team club can offer support.

In fact, the Development Team, your County Development Co-ordinator and many other people are there to help. The team regularly publishes support resources and there is a small grants scheme available.